She was about to be a single Mom. All of her excitement for the child growing within her was focused on providing a great environment for her baby and herself, with room for her Mother to move in, too. She first approached me as a referral, so that set a great tone right from the start. If I’ve enjoyed working with your friend and they sent you to me, chances are our personalities will work well together.
She’s a sweet person, likeable, realistic, without first-time buyer visions of grandeur. And she was a strong buyer but we were limited by the usual: what was available in inventory within her price range. She was diligent about scanning the properties sent to her in the automatic search and we’d tour, discussing how to make each one work, yet they all fell short. One house was kind of close and she said she would be willing to make an offer. I just didn’t feel it was right for her though because you’d have to walk through what would be her Mom’s bedroom to get to the other bedroom that she’d share with her baby, so I asked her, “If I called you tomorrow and told you this one wasn’t available any more, would it break your heart?” She quickly replied, “No.” “Then we keep looking,” was my response. She was afraid of taking up too much of my time. (I know! ... But these buyers DO exist.)
It was a week or two later that I looked at the weekend real estate section of the local paper, scanning the For Sale By Owners, when her house jumped off the page at me. Within her price range, three separate bedrooms, charming, updated, so I called her.
“Open the real estate section to page 38,” I instructed.
“Oh my GOSH! It’s my house!” she exclaimed, her excitement palpable over the phone.
I set up the appointment for that day, we saw it, and we wrote an offer on it, which was accepted, including commission paid by the Seller to my brokerage. I explained the paperwork fully to the Seller when I presented the offer, including the stipulations for the FHA appraisal.
About three weeks later, I received a phone call from the loan officer. The house appraised for $5,000 less than the contract amount, so I called my Buyer.
“My Dad has offered to help so he’ll pay the difference,” she quickly responded.
“That’s great to know, but let me see if I can spare you at least part of that.”
I contacted the Sellers and went to meet with them in person to review the appraisal. There were a few conditions that had to be addressed, mostly chipped paint as I recall, and there was the price. I reiterated what I had told them when I presented the offer, that my Buyer was a soon-to-be single mom and that money was tight for her. Well able to make the purchase with strong credit, her financial resources were understandably stretched in making the purchase. “Do you think she can meet us halfway?” they asked. I called her and relayed their request. “YES!” she said, “Only $2,500?”
We got the agreement for the additional money in writing and smoothly moved on to settlement. The Sellers were happy, my Buyer was thrilled. And she lived happily in her charming little cape until about five years later when she called me.
“Monica? I want to live closer to work. Can you help me?”
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